Blind
by artist-in-the-tardis
Summary: Challenge Response to the NightClan Forum.


"Swiftpaw! Hey, Swiftpaw!"

I turn, pretending like I don't know what's about to come next. I take a deep sniff, and I can tell that Blackpaw and Smokepaw are padding up to me, giving off a strong scent of hostility.

"Do you want to play, Swiftpaw?" asks Blackpaw in a voice sweet as cherry. I shake my head fervently, wishing they would just go away.

"Why not? You scared of us?" sneers Smokepaw. "I'm not scared of you," I meow in the strongest tone I can muster. "I just don't want to play, that's all."

Blackpaw laughs and Smokepaw leans in. I can smell his breath, which reeks of vole.

"Why not, Swiftpaw? Is it because you're- blind?"

A soft hiss escapes my throat. "I'm just as good as you! I just don't want to play!"

Blackpaw gives out an angry growl, and snaps, "Well, I guess we'll just play with another apprentice!"

I hear him and Smokepaw stalk away, but I know what they're going to do. A minute later, they turn around, and by their fast footsteps, race toward me. I get up and brace myself as best as I can. They barrel into me with all the force of a fully-grown warrior. I roll over, but Blackpaw clings on to me. Smokepaw leaps on my back as I try to shake them off. Finally, after a long time wrestling, they are satisfied with "playing" and pad off. I get up, aching and defeated, and I can tell, even if I can't see, that all of StormClan is watching me in disappointment. They know as well as I do that I will never be a warrior.

As I follow the scent into the medicine den, the medicine cat, Amberbreeze, pads up to see me, her scent growing stronger. "Oh, Swiftpaw," she sighs, "What have you done? You must be the most battered she-cat in the camp!"

"Only the most battered _she-cat_?" I ask. "Well, who's the most battered in camp?"

We both know the answer. "Tallclaw!"

Tallclaw is an elder whose scars and bruises, I've heard, frighten kits and some apprentices, too. Although he's very sweet and gentle, he gets a lot of strange looks. Like me.

Amberbreeze lays cobwebs on some of my nastier wounds and gives me some poppy seeds to help me sleep.

I wake up to the angry scent of my father looming over me. "Swiftpaw, have you been in another fight?"

"Maybe," I answer, too tired to give him an excuse.

He gives off more of an angry scent then before.

"I thought I told you to fight back! Never mind. You couldn't. You'll never be a warrior. Your mentor should be ashamed.

"Believe it or not, Greyflight isn't ashamed of me!" I snap, being pushed to the breaking point.

My father snorts in anger. "I always hoped my only daughter would be a great warrior someday. But StarClan gave me you."

I hear him padding out of the medicine den and my heart sinks. My father hates me. My mother is dead, killed by a fox seasons ago. My two brothers don't care.

"Swiftpaw, I thought you were asleep!"

I'm greeted by the familiar scent of Amberbreeze, the only cat besides my mentor who really cares for me. I slowly shake my head.

"Well, it's good that you aren't, because you're ready to go. So c'mon, get! I heard Greyflight wants to take you out."

I purr, cheered by this thought, and carefully step out of the nest and let Amberbreeze lead me out.

Greyflight announces his coming with a rusty meow of, "Huh, Swiftpaw, you look much better now!"

I guess he saw me after the fight. Well, at least I look better.

He nudges me toward camp entrance, and I set off at a slow pace. I can hear him padding quietly beside me. As I come out of the fern tunnel that leads out of camp, a fresh breeze blows in my face and I take in all the scents that are carried there.

"Smell any prey?" inquires Greyflight.

I concentrate, and take a deep sniff. "Yes. I smell a mouse down the hill, close to the training center."

"Good, now follow me and we'll see if you can catch it."

My heart sinking, I follow his scent down the hill, slipping a few times, but finally I get to the bracken that I smell the mouse in.

"Now go into the hunter's crouch like I told you, and get that mouse!" he exclaims with forced cheerfulness.

I try to, I really do, but as soon as I lunge, I hit the tall grass with an unmistakable rustle. The mouse squeals in terror and runs away, I think.

"Your hunter's crouch was… nice, but I think we need to work on the leap," he mews, voice crestfallen.

"Can we tomorrow?" I ask. Tonight is my brother Foxpaw's warrior ceremony, and even though he doesn't care whether I'm watching, I still want to.

"Yes, let's get back to camp," Greyflight agrees, and I follow him back in through the fern tunnel but the scent of many cats hit me immediately. The closest scent to me is my father's.

"Swiftpaw," he growls in a low tone. I merely crouch to the ground and look up blindly to where I think he is.

"Swiftpaw, you're leaving."

I shoot up onto my paws. "Leaving? What do you mean?" I yowl.

My father makes a deep sound in his throat. "Listen, Swiftpaw. We don't have all the fresh-kill in the forest. Leaf-bare is coming and we don't need any extra mouths to feed."

It takes me a minute to realize what's happening.

"L- leave?" I whisper. "But, Father you can't- I won't- what about me?"

_"We don't want you here, leave." _My father's voice booms in my head. My head feels dizzy, I am unwanted. My father doesn't want me, my littermates don't want me, and my Clanmates don't want me. They had banished me. On the outside, I'm fine but on the inside I'm broken. I don't know what I did wrong, why do they hate me?

The sounds around me are fuzzy, but I can hear Greyflight and Amberbreeze yowling in protest.

Not wanting a fight to break out, I turn and start to leave, hanging my tail low.

"Wait, Swiftpaw!" meows Greyflight, but my father cuts him off, snapping, "She is not Swiftpaw anymore. She's a loner, her name is Swift, or whatever she likes it to be."

I pretend I haven't heard and race out of the fern tunnel, blindly making my way through the forest. I follow the stale scent of a rabbit, switching to the equally stale scent of a vole, then to the scent of a mouse. I pause, surprised I haven't tripped over anything yet. I stop outright and sit down. _What am I going to do? I'm blind and can't catch prey for the life of me. I'm going to die out here, alone._

Then, a whiff of a fresh cat scent wafts in with a gust of wind, and I crouch down, frightened. "Don't hurt me!" I beg, frantically trying to pinpoint where the other cat is. I hear a surprised mew and pawsteps crunching on leaves. My attacker isn't trying to sneak up on me, clearly. I whirl in the direction of the noise and blindly bat my paw in the air.

"You're not going to hit me, swiping like that," rumbles an older, deep, amused voice.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" I snap, feeling like a helpless kit.

"I'm Ash, of course. And you are?"

"Why do you want to know?" I mew, my voice quivering slightly.

The voice came back reasonable. "Because I want to know who my would-be attacker is."

"I'm Swiftpa- er, Swift," I meow uncertainly.

"Why do you not attack me, Swift?" Ash asks curiously.

"Because I'm blind."

The answer comes tumbling out, without me being able to stop it. I brace myself, ready for a fight. Instead, though, I get rasping, wheezing laughter from Ash.

"It's nothing to laugh about!" I snap angrily.

"No- no- it's just that- oh, this is too good- oh, Starclan, very funny…"

The laughter trails off and I mew indignantly, "Why are you laughing?"

"Because," Ash says solemnly, "I can't smell. I can't smell and you can't see. Oh, this is perfect! Ah, Starclan, what a thing, to send _her _to _me_!"

"Mouse!" I yelp, catching the scent in the wind. A heartbeat later, I hear a scuttling of mouse paws and the sharp _clack_ of Ash's paws closing over it. I smell the fresh-kill and, reaching my paw out, grab a piece and devour it.

"You know, we make a pretty good team," the old loner tom says thoughtfully.

"Do we?" I ask, looking up from my mouse.

"Yes. Now, Swift, do you have a den, by any chance?"

"No. I just- just got exiled," I admit.

Ash mews in surprise. "Exiled? For your blindness, I suppose. Well, that's just cruel. Swift, you can stay in my den for now."

I nod eagerly. "May Starclan bless you!"

He nudges me in the right direction, just as Greyflight used to. I purr happily as we set off across the forest.


End file.
